Grocery delivery company Instacart has agreed to pay $5 million to settle federal claims that it made it harder for American candidates to get hired.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the settlement on Tuesday after finding that the company required U.S. job applicants to mail in paper applications even though the normal hiring process allowed them to apply online, according to a DOJ press release. The company did not put foreign applicants through this process.

The Justice Department’s investigation found that Instacart created additional burdens on U.S. workers to apply for job opportunities by requiring that applications be physically mailed for positions advertised as part of PERM recruitment. EEOC’s investigation uncovered similar evidence. This practice departed from Instacart’s standard recruitment process, which allowed electronic applications. As a result, many of the U.S. workers who applied were not timely considered. 

Under the terms of the settlement, Instacart will establish a settlement fund of up to $4,000,000 to compensate Instacart applicants as well as deterred applicants affected by the discriminatory practices from December 2023 to February 2026.  A claims administrator will contact potential aggrieved individuals and will determine eligibility for back pay and compensatory damages. Until the claims administrator establishes a contact email for potential victims, the DOJ and EEOC encourage applicants, as well as deterred applicants, to email Instacart@eeoc.gov if they believe they may be aggrieved so that agencies can share this information with the claims administrator. 

In addition, Instacart will pay $1,000,000 in civil penalties to the United States. Instacart is also required to give U.S. workers fair opportunities to apply for jobs as part of the PERM recruitment process by posting the positions on its public career website and accepting electronic applications. The agreement also requires Instacart to train personnel on its anti-discrimination obligations, revise its employment policies, and be subject to monitoring and reporting requirements, to prevent future discrimination.

The PERM program allows employers to sponsor temporary visa holders for permanent resident status after performing good-faith recruitment for U.S. workers. However, during this recruitment process, companies cannot illegally discriminate on the basis of citizenship status or national origin by creating additional burdens for U.S. and American workers; publishing job advertisements that disfavor, limit, specify, or otherwise discriminate against U.S. and American workers; or use processes that limit, segregate, or classify applicants in any way that tends to deprive U.S. and American applicants of employment opportunities.

When using the PERM program, employers must show they first tried to recruit U.S. applicants for the positions.

As part of the settlement, Instacart must post PERM jobs on its public career site, accept electronic applications, train its staff on the process each year, and revise its employment policies.

This settlement is the 15th since the DOJ relaunched its Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative last year.

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This is also the EEOC’s fourth public settlement involving discrimination against Americans based on national origin since 2025.

Instacart denied violating the law. "While we maintain that our practices complied with all applicable laws and regulations, we're pleased to have resolved this matter so we can keep our full focus on delivering on our mission for customers, shoppers, retailers, and brands," a spokesperson said.

The settlement follows a similar case in August, when the Justice Department caught OpenAI hiding jobs from Americans to hire foreign workers.